


Never Bring Knives to an Axe Fight

by Saraste



Series: Nwalin Week 2016 fics [4]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Nwalin Week, Quest, Sparring, Sparring as Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraste/pseuds/Saraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somwhere along the road, Nori challenges Dwalin to spar with him. There's been tension between them for long enough. Will Dwalin really take Nori's flirting seriously?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Bring Knives to an Axe Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Written for nwalin week 2016, for Day 4: “Flirting” or “Fighting”. I took both, kinda. 
> 
> Katajainen offered some suggestions, but did not beta. For which I thank her for taking time off her busy life, especially since I'm still holding her Hobbit Big Bang hostage.  

Nori flirts like he fights: underhandedly, sneaky and with good results. It could be said that he flirts _while_ he fights. It would be just about right, too. And Dwalin _knows_ that. Had known that and still agreed to a sparring match with Nori anyway, when the thief suggested it, eyes dancing with mirth, lips curved in a sly smile. Dori might have groaned somewhere in the back-ground, Dwalin didn't listen. There were coins clinking as Bofur gathered bets.

  
  


They’re sparring on the edges of the camp, the day’s trek over and done with, the Mountain closer but not yet close and… Nori is winning. He’s snuck under Dwalin’s arms, presses against his front and is doing his utmost to dislodge his axes with his mace. His swirls and ducks are reminiscent of courtly dance, in the olden days of Erebor. If a deadly dance. 

  
  


Nori has better reach with his weapon, which Dwalin had overlooked when he'd agreed. Yet it wasn't like he'd thought Nori would bring knives to an axe-fight, that would have been suicidal. But Dwalin seems incapable of thinking with anything but his lust when Nori winks at him a certain way and cocks his hips just right. Dwalin hadn’t thought about any of it, not at all. And now they're sparring, and Dwalin is losing.

  
  


Nori slips out of Dwalin’s grasp before he can catch him. ‘My, my, however did you ever manage to lock me up, back home?’ The thief, _his thief,_ no, the thief, purrs close to Dwalin’s ear just before he pulls away.

  
  


Dwalin swings his axe as Nori leaps, lithe frame arching nigh sinfully despite the context of their interaction. Dwalin is hit with the realization that he will not win this fight, this sparring match. The fact is that he had never really _caught_ Nori thieving around, the thief had _allowed_ himself to be caught. Usually copping a feel and flirting outrageously with Dwalin all the way to the cells, where he usually had only stayed for long enough that Dwalin wasn’t in the immediate vicinity any more, before slipping out. 

  
  


It had never led to anything, because Dwalin hadn’t let it. He was of a noble lineage, had a position as head of the guard, Thorin’s guard, and couldn’t have allowed himself to be tangled with a thief. Because flirting seemed to come to Nori as easy as breathing. And there was no reason for Dwalin to ever have assumed that he meant to do anything more than taunt him with it. But now, here on the road… 

  
  


Nori’s mace crazed his side on his moment of inattention, cutting a rent on the cloth of his over-tunic when it snags on a loose thread. 

  
  


The insufferable flirt was already dancing away on nimble feet, eyes holding promises of wicked things, should Dwalin just succumb to them. 

  
  


‘Fight fair!’ Dwalin has to roar, charging after Nori, a redness heating his cheeks that has nothing to do with exertion. He reaches and... 

  
  


Nori flits just out of reach in a swirl of russet hair, laughing, mace swinging. His hair’s come a bit undone by Dwalin’s grasp for him and it looks like the dishevelment of a good tumble. He toys with his mace, swinging it from it's strap, turning back to face Dwalin. ‘When have I ever played fair, dear guardsman?’ His voice is breathless, full of promise. His hair as wild as his smile as parts of it fall around his face.

  
  


‘Never,’ Dwalin grumbled as he once again corners Nori. 

  
  


There is the undignified squawk of their burglar, most like, as Dwalin and Nori’s fight moves a little too close to their campsite as it gets ever wilder. Nori uses the few trees around to bounce off on, gaining ground on Dwalin that way. The way he fights is elegance and cunning, but at the same time it’s a style born out of necessity, of the limitations of Nori’s slight frame. Being bulky and big, Dwalin never had a chance to catch him. Especially with Nori's better reach in contrast with his axes.

  
  


‘Forfeit already!’ Nori taunts, playing around Dwalin, swishing and ducking in equal measure, whirling his mace above his head as Dwalin swings his axes where his head had just been. Metal clashes against metal. There is laughter from among the other’s. Nori’s brother’s, well Ori, cheer him on.

  
  


‘ Never to you!’ Dwalin counters. He pushes his advantage again, knocks the mace clean off Nori's hands and crowds him against a tree, finally,  _ finally _ .

  
  


But he loses anyway as Nori surges up and kisses him, there where everyone can see, and the world around them stops mattering for Dwalin. At least until he feels the knife against his throat. ‘I win…’ Nori whispers smugly, eyes twinkling up at him, having stolen his victory from him so underhandedly. But by the way his body arches, _feels_ , against Dwalin’s own is proof enough it won’t be all he’ll steal of Dwalin tonight… even when it’ll all be given freely anyway. 

  
  
  


 


End file.
